Bruno Guimarães Scout Report At Lyon 2021/2022: Why Arsenal Want Lyon’s ‘€45m Or Nothing’ Star

The name of Lyon’s 24-year-old central midfielder, Bruno Guimarães (182cm/6’0”, 78kg/172lbs), is one that’s been mentioned a lot in recent weeks concerning an upcoming transfer away from Groupama Stadium and Ligue 1, with EPL side Arsenal said to be interested in securing his services.

The Brazil international moved to Europe in this window two years ago, joining Lyon from 2021 Copa Sudamericana champions Club Athletico Paranaense for a reported €20m.

At the time, Arsenal were also said to be one of the clubs monitoring Guimarães, along with La Liga’s Atlético Madrid.

However, Lyon successfully brought the midfielder to Europe.

With Lyon in the midst of a disastrous campaign by their standards, Guimarães’ name has been linked with the exit door.

I wrote about the long-term Arsenal target two years ago in a tactical analysis piece that can be read here: Bruno Guimarães scout report 2019/2020.

In that analysis, I detailed three key strengths in the midfielder’s game: his ability to progress the ball via dribbling, his long passing quality, and his defensive abilities.

These three areas have remained key parts of his game over the last two seasons in Ligue 1, with Guimarães showing he can perform for a top club in one of Europe’s top-five leagues.

Famed Italian transfer expert Fabrizio Romano recently commented on the speculation around Guimarães’ future by stating that as far as Les Gones are concerned, it’s “€45m or nothing” for Guimarães this transfer window.

The journalist indicated this could make a transfer switch unlikely for the player this month.

However, regardless of touted price tags, I feel the speculation around Guimarães is more than justified this month based on his performances for Lyon since arriving two years ago.

In this scout report, I’ll analyze Guimarães’ role in Lyon’s strategy and tactics while highlighting key strengths and potential areas for improvement in the player’s game.

The midfielder has grown during his time at Lyon, and based on the club’s current standing in France’s top flight, it’s difficult to argue that Guimarães shouldn’t aim to secure a step up in level.

For me, Guimarães is currently the best central midfielder in Ligue 1, not playing for PSG.

He’s a well-rounded box-to-box presence who does everything you’d want your central midfielder to do very reliably.

I hope this scout report adequately explains why I believe this is the case.

Unless otherwise stated, all stats and data used in this analysis come from Wyscout.

Bruno Guimarães Passing and retention

Guimarães is typically heavily involved in Lyon’s build-up and ball progression phases.

In this section, I’ll analyse his off-the-ball movement, scanning, and technical passing abilities to show why this is the case and how he uses these qualities to help his team in early possession phases.

A lot of Lyon’s play typically goes through Guimarães, with the midfielder playing a role that sees his side rely on him to circulate possession, retain the ball, and progress.

The Lyon man has played a very high 68.31 passes per 90 this term while retaining 89.23% pass accuracy.

His performance in both of these areas ranks him very highly among the 85 central midfielders/holding midfielders to have played at least 400 minutes in Ligue 1 this term.

Additionally, these two statistics tell us a lot about his heavily involved role in early possession phases for Les Gones and how his team relies on his ball retention abilities in the build-up and ball progression phases when circulating possession in search of progression opportunities.

Guimarães is an excellent asset for ball progression too, which we’ll analyse later in this scout report, but a key thing to note about him is how he can be relied upon to not force the issue and continue circulating the ball while waiting for an opening when required.

Guimarães is incredibly technically sound. He can receive the ball well and calmly and consistently perform the passing basics to a high level.

Even when under pressure, with the ball moving at a fast pace and when afforded little thinking time, Guimarães reliably makes good, safe decisions when circulating possession and, importantly, executes his decisions crisply with good technique.

He very rarely makes any avoidable mistakes in these situations which is why his team relies on him so heavily in these phases to perform this role.

Figures 1-4, all from the same passage of play, highlight Guimarães’ scanning, off-the-ball movement and technical quality.

I felt that this particular passage of play does a good job of summarising Guimarãess qualities in the early possession phases of play, particularly his passing and ball retention qualities.

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